The Swedish ministry was bustling with activity, people ran with paper in hand. And everyone looked stressed and irritated as they passed. The polished floor reflecting light from the chandeliers hanging above.
Linus was currently standing and waiting for some sort of escort. The letter he had received from the French knight had detailed that someone would guide him from here.
Linus was wearing his Gray family uniform like he usually does, he thought about wearing the veil uniform. But quickly noted that it would be a bad idea walking around like that.
He saw someone walking towards him with an elegant white robe with blue trims. "Monsieur Gray?" She said in a French accent.
"Yes." Linus answered calmly as he looked at the lady.
She smiled. "I'm here to escort you, by the order of Lady D'Aubigne."
He nodded. "Please lead the way."
The two walked towards a apparition room. As they entered, she said. "Please stand still monsieur." She grabbed hold of his arm.
And soon the world twisted and turned violently.
Then a blink later, they stood in a beautiful garden. Roses and trimmed trees and bushes, it smelled lovely. The sun gave a golden light over the garden. In front of the garden stood a giant white mansion. The mansion was two stories tall, a black roof. The walls had beautiful detail, and big windows everywhere. It really screamed French mansion.
"Welcome Mr. Gray." Came a voice from behind as he admired the manor.
Linus turned towards the voice and saw Lyra D'Aubigne sitting in a gazebo. Under the roof of the gazebo was three chairs, and in the middle a small round table with sweets and treats with tea.
Linus stepped into the gazebo, "Nice to meet you again Lady D'Aubigne." Linus said with a light bow.
She waved her hand. "Please call me lyra." She said calmy. "Linus this is a friend of mine that I've been training from time to time. Meet Fleur Delacour."
"Bonjour Monsieur Linus." She said with a short bow of her head.
Fleur was beautiful, blond hair, a warm smile, and striking blue eyes. She had this elegant form in all she did. From standing up to bowing her head, even talking.
Lyra stood up, "Because Fleur here isn't really comfortable with English yet. I will teach you a secret charm, this charm will make you understand the French language and be able to speak it." she held her wand out and showed the spell.
Linus mirrored the spell and incantation. After a few trials and error, he completed it. the charm would slowly give him knowledge in the French language. This would take time, but it's faster than learning it the normal way.
Sitting down at the table, Linus looked at Fleur. She gave of this elegant yet powerful feeling. She was in no doubt strong, considering she's trained by Lyra.
"You must be wondering why I've called for both you and Fleur at the same time," she said as she gave me a letter. The letter was written by Lyra but said that we cant talk about the veil around Fleur.
She continued with. "I was thinking. I will train both of you, sometime together and sometime you train alone." She took a sip of her tea before continuing. "I hope that sounds well for you Linus, I've already asked Fleur about it."
"I have no objection." I said. This could also be a good moment to get a friend in France.
She looked pleased. "Very good. We will begin training tomorrow morning."
I looked at Fleur once again I had something to ask. "Do you attend Beauxbatons?"
Fleur's mouth formed a little smile as she answered. "Oui, you attend Durmstrang yes?" her English a little broken, but I still understand it.
I nodded. "Yes, I do. I just have to ask, do you have dancing classes?"
She and Lyra started laughing.
"Of course, I will teach you. I can't imagine Durmstrang teaching dancing." Fleur said still lightly laughing.
The four continued talking for some time.
After about an hour. Fleur had left to go to her room. And Linus and Lyra now sat alone.
"So, Linus. I wanted to talk to you about the training we are about to do."
"Alright, lets hear it." Linus said calmly, but he was excited to hear about what he was about to learn.
Lyra looked more serious now as she said. "Seraphina told me that the veil have given you knowledge about the ancient curses."
'Oh, are we training that seriously.' Linus thought, he didn't expect this training to be anything else than new spells and such. But learning curses would greatly benefit him.
"Yes, but i haven't done any research about it yet."
Lyra nodded, "That is good actually. That makes it easier for me to learn what I know. But curses are very much a thing you have to discover yourself as well. Everyone does them differently."
He knew this, not one curse was the same.
"I will only show you some basic curses, and from there you will mostly do your own." She looked around a little before speaking again. "And don't tell anything to fleur about the veil. She doesn't need to know about this yet, she will in the future."
With that Linus was escorted to his room that he would stay in.
The room was big and fancy. A big bed in the middle with a bedframe you would see in a medieval movie, but modern and white. The room had two big windows and between them was a door to a balcony.
The balcony doors were open, letting the warm summer breeze that carried the scent of roses and lavender from the garden below. The golden light painted the marble floor in soft hues of amber. Linus walked toward the balcony, resting his hands on the cold railing as he looked out over the D'Aubigne estate. From here, he could see the vast grounds stretching beyond the trimmed hedges. Fountains glimmering in the sunset, the gentle movement of house elves tending to the gardens, and the faint sounds of music echoing from somewhere in the mansion.
Turning back into his room, he noticed a small note on the desk by the window.
Reading the note:
Rest well tonight. Tomorrow's training will not be easy. We begin at dawn, in the lower courtyard. – Lyra
He smiled faintly. "At down, of course" he muttered.
The next morning.
The morning was crisp, the cool morning felt good, almost no wind and the sun gave a beautiful light in the early morning.
Fleur and Lyra had already arrived and stood talking in the lower courtyard.
Fleur had some sort of track suit, and Lyra stood in her white robe but with sort of training uniform under.
Linus was wearing a simple black t shirt with some baggy black jogging pants.
" Good morning, Linus. I trust you slept well?" Lyra said as he approached.
Linus nodded, "Wonderful beds you have here, slept better than ever."
Lyra nodded. "Good. Well than, Linus I have prepared certain things that you will be doing in that corner of the courtyard." She pointed at the far right corner of the courtyard, there seemed to be some equipment prepared.
"And Fleur, you will be being in the opposite corner. I will check in once every two hours."
Linus walked over this his courtyard corner.
In the corner were a book, empty papers, a pen and a mat to sit on.
There was a parchment with instructions. Written on it 'Read the book and learn as much as you can about curses'
'sounds simple enough' Linus thought as he took the book and sat down on the mat.
The book was thick, its cover made of dark leather embossed with a silver sigil a serpent biting its own tail. Maleficia Antiqua, the title read in faded, curling letters. As Linus opened it, the smell of ancient parchment and ink wafted up, carrying with it the weight of something forbidden yet profoundly fascinating.
Each page was written in a mix of Latin and old magical script, the letters shifting slightly under his gaze as though testing his resolve to read them. Thankfully, his studies in runes and curse theory at Durmstrang gave him enough grounding to understand the basics. Still, there was something alive about this book, a subtle hum of magic that prickled at the edge of his senses.
The pages told of stories and of theories, who curses were used and could be used. The curses that could harm generations of a family.
'They stronger the will, the stronger the curse' Linus thought as he understood parts of the book.
Meaning if the hate or love is strong enough the curse or spell will be stronger.
For the next few hours, he read silently, underlining symbols and sketching sigils onto the parchment beside him. Occasionally, he could hear Fleur in the distance, her voice sharp and melodic as she practiced incantations with Lyra. Bursts of wind or heat would ripple across the courtyard, followed by Lyra's calm voice correcting her form.
He turned back to his book and reached a new section titled "Cursus Voluntatis" The Path of Willpower. The chapter detailed the first form of curse manipulation, the art of shaping one's magical will into tangible form. It wasn't about harming others, not yet, it was about learning control. Containing dark magic without letting it consume you.
At the bottom of the page was an incantation in red letters. Harshly written.
"Vincula Umbrae" — the Binding of Shadows
Linus traced his fingers across the words, feeling the faint pulse of the spell within the ink. It was a focus curse, meant to test discipline by forcing one to bind their own shadow. A dangerous exercise for beginners, the note warned.
He hesitated for a moment. Then smiled faintly. "Perfect."
Standing up from the mat, Linus drew his wand. The sun had climbed higher, and the light cast his shadow long across the marble courtyard. He took a steady breath and focused.
"Vincula Umbrae."
A faint whisper of dark energy flickered at his feet. The shadow twitched, then recoiled like a living thing. The ground beneath him trembled slightly, and a chill wind swept across the courtyard. He could feel the spell resisting him, as though his shadow itself didn't want to be controlled.
Sweat began to bead on his forehead as he pushed harder, channeling his will into the incantation. "Vincula Umbrae!"
This time, the magic snapped into place, the shadow froze, bound in stillness. Linus gasped, his wand hand trembling. He could feel the connection, like a tether between his magic and the shadow's essence. It was eerie, cold, yet exhilarating.
He exhaled slowly and released the spell. The shadow returned to normal, stretching lazily along the ground once more.
From the far end of the courtyard, Lyra's voice called out, "Good! You felt it, didn't you?"
Linus turned. She was watching from beneath the shade of an archway, arms crossed, a knowing smile on her lips. Fleur stood beside her, eyes wide in fascination.
"Yes," Linus said, catching his breath. "It's… alive. The magic, I mean."
Lyra walked over to me." Now that you have casted it. train it for a couple of days, learn to control the feeling and control it. then you move on to the next step."
With that said Linus began training his control over the curse, this wouldn't be a combat course or anything. This was just a curse to learn how to control yourself, to train not to lose yourself while using it.
The days went by. The courtyard became more and more like a training ground as more dummies and training equipment came in.
Fleur had been training spells and charms, while Linus had been learning to control the shadow curse.
The two had grown close as they often ate breakfast and dinner together. And with Linus now almost fluent in French it made things easier.
They often shared stories about spells and such, Linus even shared about when someone tailed him in isgränd. He left out the veil part of course. They became good friends as they both helped each other when they struggled with the training.
Linus had moved on from the shadow curse by now, and started learning about more older curses such as those put on family's ages ago. Knowledge about how to remove them or even make them could come handy in the future.
While sitting on his mat in the courtyard, Fleur had come up to him. "Wanna duel?"
The question didn't surprise Linus, but it did catch him of guard as he didn't think she would ask this early.
"I would love to." He said as he stood up from his mat and put his book to the side.
They both took position on either side of the courtyard. They looked at each other, and bowed.
Fleur raised her wand and began shooting of simple wand arrows right away.
Linus dodge side to side to avoid the simple spells. He then aimed his wand and said. "Manus Gelida" as he made the incantation. The feet of Fleur got stuck as two ice hands held her in place.
Her eyes widened in shock. "Not fair." She aimed her wand downwards and shot a simple spell at the hands holding her.
She then aimed her wand once again. "Depulso, Petrificus totalus" the spells shot out.
Fleur smile as she wanted to see how Linus would handle the spells. But in the next moment the two spells that were flying in the air just disappeared.
Linus simply snapped his finger and the two spells were no more.
Fleur stood eyes wide in disbelief. "Where did you learn that?!"
Linus shrugged. "I've always been able to do that." It wasn't to flex, it was the truth.
Fleur stood for a moment and thought it seemed. "You are strange monsieur Linus."
The two exchange spells for ten more minutes before going back to training on their own.
One afternoon as Linus sat on his mat. The weather was calm, sunny. Summer was not beginning to change to the hotter weather of the July month.
Lyra had given Linus an old necklace. On this necklace was and very old curse. She gave him the task to figure out what this curse was, and if he could remove the curse. This was not ordinary curse either from the looks of it. it was deeply imbedded in the necklace, meaning that the curse was suppose to give the owner of this particular necklace a rough time.
He began looking over the necklace, deeply analyzing it with his eyes. He later moved on to feeling the curse itself. He noted that it felt very heavy on emotions. Often meaning that the curse was made after something bad happen.
'Or if something would happen' Linus noted as he felt the curse.
He felt and analyst the necklace for two hours before finally calling Lyra over.
"So have you figured it out?" she asked.
Linus nodded. "This curse is suppose to hurt you if the wearer did something bad towards the cure maker."
Lyra smiled. "Very good Linus. In record time as well." She nodded approvingly
She continued with. "So how will you proceed with removing it?"
He thought for a moment. "I will replace it, with something of my own making instead."
She looked surprised at the answer. "Alright, I look forward to seeing the result." With that she left and Linus got to work.
He held the necklace in his hand and his wand in the other.
The thought was simple, he would put his own runes and charm on the necklace and push or remove the curse from the necklace. It should be possible from what he had learnt the last two weeks.
He started to focus. The curse put up heavy resistance as soon as he began.
As the runes and the charm pushed into the necklace. The curse slowly faded.
Afternoon became night without Linus noticing. He was too focused to stop now. Sweat ran down his forehead, his arms began shaking lightly. The strain on his body began to slowly make him loose focus, but he quickly made himself focus again by biting his tongue.
At midnight he finally finished it. and as he opened his eyes the necklace gem glowed with a light blue.
He looked up from the necklace and noticed Lyra standing there.
"You made it." she said with a smile. "A necklace for better warmth in cold weather I see. Very Gray family." She gave an approving nod. "Good work."
Linus felt the weight lift from his shoulders as he heard her words.
"Now go get some sleep and a bath, you smell like a dog." Lyra said with a chuckle.